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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
A picture's worth a thousand words. The camera does not lie. Seeing is believing. Such are the deeply ingrained platitudes of our own historically situated ways of seeing, shaped by an age of mechanical reproduction and mass mediated visual culture. But what are we, as critically minded students of history, to make of the visual evidence we encounter in the archives as well as our everyday lives? If historical imagination is also a visual exercise, how are we to envision the past(s) that we study and attempt to know? In what follows, I consider such questions by focusing on the well-known southern tours of the Qianlong emperor (1711-1799, r. 1736-1795), the fourth Manchu emperor to rule over China proper.
1 Qianlong's southern tours occurred in the spring of 1751, 1757, 1762, 1765, 1780 and 1784.
2 For a concise overview see Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski, Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 147-158.
3 Joohoi served as a Commander-general of the Imperial Escort (xiangdao tongling) on Qianlong's first two southern tours in 1751 and 1757, while Nusan served in this capacity on all of Qianlong's first four southern tours (1751, 1757, 1762, and 1765).
4 For a more see Zhuang Jifa [Chuang Chi-fa], Qing Gaozong shiquan wugong yanjiu (Taipei: Guoli Gugong bowuyuan, 1982) 9-107; Peter C. Perdue, China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 270-292; and James A. Millward, Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998).
5 For more on the Ziguang ge see Qing-gui et al., comps., Guochao gongshi xubian (1806, reprint Beijing: Beijing guji chubanshe, 1994) juan 65; and Zhao Erxun et al., comps, Qingshi gao (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), juan 12, 454.
6 Wang Shuyun, Qingdai beixun yudao he saiwai xinggong (Beijing: Zhongguo huanjing kexue chubanshe, 1989), 26-27.
7 Bi Meixue [Michèle Pirazzoli-t'Serstevens] and Hou Jinglang, Mulan tu yu Qianlong qiuji dalie zhi yanjiu (Taipei: Guoli Gugong bowuyuan, 1982), 98.
8 Arthur W. Hummel, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period [hereafter abbreviated as ECCP] (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1943-44), 74; and Qing-gui et al., Guochao gongshi xubian, juan 97, 960-966.
9 Many thanks to Cary Liu, a curator at Princeton University's Museum of Fine Art, who has alerted me to the presence of one temporary structure depicted in one of the scrolls of the Qianlong-era Nanxun tu. Although tent structures appear in the Nanxun tu, they are not a central element of the composition, and there is no representation of anything resembling an imperial encampment.
10 Zhongguo diyi lishi dang'an guan, comp. Qianlong chao shangyu dang [hereafter abbreviated as QLCSYD] (Beijing: Dang'an chubanshe, 1991), v. 2, 886, doc. (4), QL 21/12.
11 Wang Zhenyu, Yangji zhai conglu (Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji chubanshe, 1985), 48.
12 Tuojin et al., comps., Da Qing huidian (Jiaqing chao) (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1991), juan 874, 31b-32a and 33b.
13 Here I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Claudia Brown, Professor of Art History at Arizona State University for alerting me (via personal correspondence) to the importance of distinguishing between three groups of artists working at the Qing court: Jesuits, Han Chinese literati, and Han Chinese court painters (artisans).
14 Maxwell K. Hearn, “The ‘Kangxi Southern Inspection Tour’: A Narrative Program by Wang Hui,” (Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1990), 63-64.
15 ECCP, 78-80.
16 Zhao-lian [Aisin Gioro Jooliyan], Xiaoting zalu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 372.
17 Gao Jin, comp. Nanxun shengdian [hereafter abbreviated as NXSD] (Taipei: Xinxing shuju, 1991), juan 11, 26a.
18 Shen Deqian, Shen Deqian ziding nianpu (Jiaozhong tang ed., 1764), 44b and 55b.
19 ECCP, 74. Four Jesuit priests then living in Beijing-Giuseppe Castiglione, Ignatius Sichelbart, Jean-Denis Attiret, and Jean-Damascène Salusti-were ordered to make reproductions of these scenes for engraving. The copper engravings themselves were completed in Paris in 1774. A set of prints consisted of thirty-four sheets with sixteen paintings, sixteen poems, a preface, and a postscript. One hundred sets were sent to China of which only a few are extant. A complete set is preserved in the U.S. Library of Congress.
20 Sa-zai et al., comps., Qinding nanxun shengdian [hereafter abbreviated as QDNXSD] (Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu yinshuguan, 1983), juan 81, 5b. Locations included temples and other noted sites in Yangzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, and Hangzhou.
21 Li Dou, Yangzhou huafang lu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960), juan 1, 2-3.
22 QLCSYD, v. 2, 889.
23 Lufu zouzhe, Junji dang (Grand Council reference collection), Zhongguo diyi lishi dang'an guan (First Historical Archives of China) [hereafter abbreviated as LFZZ (B)], microfilm roll 033, frame no. 1153, Injišan, QL 29/10/21.
24 The Qianlong emperor's movements through the city of Yangzhou during his first southern tour of 1751 buttress the undertone of martial vigor, with the procession passing through the parade grounds of the Green Standard military garrison in the middle of Yangzhou's new city, and the emperor encamping at to the east of the city wall. See Li, Yangzhou huafang lu, juan 9, 194.
25 A.F.P. Hulsewé, “Shih chi,” in Michael Loewe, ed., Early Chinese Texts [hereafter abbreviated as ECT] (Berkeley: Sociaety for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, 1993), 405.
26 Sima Qian, Shiji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), juan 97, p. 2697-2706 (Zhonghua ed., p. 683.1-685.1); and Ban Gu, Hanshu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), juan 43, p. 2111-2116 (Zhonghua ed., p. 540.2-541.2).
27 Mark C. Elliott, The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 8 and 275-304.
28 QLCSYD, v. 3, 18, doc. 80 (edict QL22/2/28, 1757/4/16).
29 Michael G. Chang, “A Court on Horseback: Constructing Manchu Ethno-Dynastic Rule in China, 1751-1784” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 2001), 255-292.
30 For paintings of tribute horses presented by the Khalkas (1743), Kazakhs (1757), and Afghans (1762) see Cécile and Michel Beurdeley, Giuseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors (Rutland, VT and Tokyo: Tuttle, 1971), 103-105, 120-123, 165-166 (nos. 18-23), and 167-168 (no. 27).
31 In the Mulan scrolls (Figure 19), Qianlong's bodyguard is armed with bows and arrows. Meanwhile in the Suzhou scene (Figure 18), they are armed with swords, sheathed in what appear to be jade scabbards. In the third painting (Figure 20), we see that Qianlong carries his own bow and arrows and is no longer protected by an imperial umbrella.
32 A-ke-dang-a, Yao Wentian et al., comps., Yangzhou fuzhi (Taipei: Chengwen chubanshe, 1974), juan 1 (edicts), juan 2-4 (poems); Li Mingwan, Feng Guifen et al., comps., Suzhou fuzhi [hereafter abbreviated as SZFZ] (Taipei: Chengwen chubanshe, 1970), juan shou 1-3; Shao Jinhan, Zheng Yun et al., comps (Qianlong) Hangzhou fuzhi [hereafter abbreviated as HZFZ] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995), juan shou 1-5.
33 Qianlong's southern tour poems were collected in a total of three volumes: the first chronicling his travels from Beijing through Zhili and Shandong provinces; the second his southward movements in Jiangnan and Zhejiang; and the third all poems written on his northward return to the capital. (QDNXSD, juan 17, 32b-33a.)
34 NXSD, juan 8, 4b-5a.
35 NXSD, juan 16, 1b.
36 NXSD, juan 16, 26a.
37 NXSD, juan 1, 3a.
38 NXSD, juan 1, 21a. The term zhanjiu is a classical allusion to the phrase “drawing near the sun and gazing upon the clouds” (jiu ri zhan yun) which refers to a description of the sageking Yao's virtues found in Sima Qian's Shiji. See William H. Nienhauser, Jr. et. al., trans., The Grand Scribe's Records: Volume 1, The Memoirs of Pre-Han China (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 6.
39 NXSD, juan 1, 27a.
40 Li, Yangzhou huafang lu, p. 3, no. 3.
41 NXSD, juan 1, 21a.
42 For Kong Yingda's exegesis of the hexagram for guan as related to imperial touring (xunshou) as well as the concept of self-reflection (guanwo) and observing the people (guanmin) see Zhouyi zhengyi in Ruan Yuan, comp., Shisan jing zhushu (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe), p. 36.3.
43 For Zheng Xuan and Kong Yingda's commentary on the connection between “observing the people” (guanmin) and “imperial touring” (xunshou) in antiquity see Mao Shi zhengyi in Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing zhushu, p. 264 and p. 588.3.
44 For Zheng Xuan's annotation see Liji zhengyi in Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing zhushu, p. 1609.3.
45 The poem was entitled “Clear Weather” (Qing) (see QDNXSD, juan 18, 9a-b) and was followed with an extended gloss on the interrelated principles of “contemplating/observing oneself” (guanwo) and “contemplating/observing the people” (guanmin) based upon Zhu Xi's commentary on the hexagram for “the ruler's contemplation” in The Book of Changes: “When ruler contemplates / observes himself, his actions are not simply limited to his own personal merits and mistakes. This should also include contemplating / observing the well-being of people as a means of self-reflection.”
46 Richard Wilhelm, trans., The I Ching or Book of Changes, 3rd ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 82.
47 For “anpei” see SZFZ, juan shou 2, 70b.
48 NXSD, juan 7, 10a [1751]; and juan 23, 4b-5a [1762].
49 NXSD, juan 17, 19b-20a.
50 For instance, in cities such as (from north to south): Huai'an (NXSD, juan 7, 10a [1751]; juan 15, 9a [1757]); Gaoyou (NXSD, juan 23, 12a [1762]); Yangzhou (NXSD, juan 7, 15a [1751]; QDNXSD, juan 16, 20a-b [1780]); Changzhou (NXSD, juan 8, 2a-b [1751]; juan 16, 1a [1757]; and juan 24, 1a [1762]), etc.
51 For example, Tiger Hill (Huqiu) (NXSD, juan 24, 16b-17a [1762]; and juan 32, 8b-9a [1765]); Mount Hua (Huashan) (NXSD, juan 16, 10b-11a [1757]); etc.
52 NXSD, juan 15, 17a, QL22, 1757 (Jiangnan).
53 NXSD, juan 23, 19b, QL27, 1762 (Jiangnan).
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